Processional
Juan Varela de Salamanca, Seville, 1536
Canadian Mennonite University/Mennonite Heritage Centre Archive, Loewen 3

This is a revealing example of an early printed music book. A Processional contains the chants, mostly responsories and antiphons, which are sung during processions within the church before mass. Such processions are customary mainly in monastic churches. With the advent of printing, each monk could now carry his own copy of the music while he was on the move in the church. The printing process would have been a two-fold one, or double impression printing, with the staff lines printed in red while the text and the music appear in black. Also appearing in black print in this book are the many initials, or capital letters which begin a chant. These are all small woodcuts. It was also not unusual to write in the music by hand, allowing for local variations in the chant. The contents of this book are arranged according to the liturgical calendar, beginning with Advent.

Varela was a successful Saville printer, where he moved after printing in Granada and Toledo.